Blog Archives

A Little Collaboration Goes a Long Way...

1/29/2016

One recent afternoon our Occupational Therapist, Marika Minczeski, made her way to one of our newer partnerships schools this year, One Purpose (a brand new pre-K, K, 1 school in San Francisco). Marika and our UE Coach/Academic Intervention Specialist Anne Shibley met to come up with some tier one OT interventions for One Purpose students. Marika and Anne started with classroom observations, ordered some OT supplies, and ultimately modeled to the entire OP staff how to use the sensory tools they ordered for the school. After their meeting, they continued to collaborate via email to brainstorm intervention ideas and strategies, and the results have been amazing.

For one student in particular they scheduled daily body breaks (3-times a day) which were immediately embedded into his routine daily scheduled. He independently takes a hall pass to complete a body break, and then with the help of a school staff member, he'll do “bear claws”, “starfish”, or even “burrito wraps”. He takes full advantage of these break times and tools (he really enjoys the “starfish”!). He feels loved and supported and he seems to be gaining a larger understanding of his own body and needs. Even his friends join in on the sensory regulation fun!

It's very inspiring to see how holistically student needs are being addressed in our programs and how a small bit of collaboration can go a long ways for the students we serve!

Blog post written by:
Toshia Mears, Director of School Partnerships

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CLINICAL STRAND UPDATE: The Development of A Moral Compass: What Can We Realistically Expect from Children?

1/29/2016

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All of us in the Unconditional Education world find ourselves challenged at one point or another by a child who just seems to "forget what she knows" in moments of escalation. Sometimes the escalation itself may not even be evident--a child who was once thoughtful and seemed to really internalize the concept of caring for a friend lashes out during a group lesson, or bullies a peer during a seemingly benign moment waiting in line. What is the problem??" we might ask - rhetorically really - as we stifle (or blurt out) the words "you know better than that!" We might be thinking "we've gone over this and over how to be a kind person, is this kid a monster??" Parents wonder these things too -- it's challenging to remember that moral development is not as linear as it feels once we're grown. As adults, we have learned and practiced the art of impulse control, of asking for help, of taking a moment before reacting. Typically we have quicker access to a higher moral road. The children we work with are at varying stages of moral development and it may be helpful to reflect on what that actually means, what that can look like. And this applies to all kids, regardless of whether there's a trauma history or a challenging internal working model. Let's normalize the bumpy road of moral development!

Recently, some of our clinical supervision groups read an article published in in the Psychotherapy Networker that discusses the realities of childhood moral development. If you’re interested in reading the article, ask yourself as you read: How might you respond to a child who is struggling to apologize, given the information in this article? Are there ways we could reduce shaming children for their moral errors or natural missteps?

Blog post written by:
Emily Marsh, Director of Clinical Interventions

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ACADEMIC STRAND UPDATE: Food for Thought: Is Our Praise Supporting Learning?

1/21/2016

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“We also need to remember that effort is a means to an end to the goal of learning and improving. Too often nowadays, praise is given to students who are putting forth effort, but not learning, in order to make them feel good in the moment: “Great effort! You tried your best!” It’s good that the students tried, but it’s not good that they’re not learning.”
- Carol Dweck

It’s been almost a decade since Carol Dweck’s “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” was first published. In recent years, “Growth Mindset” has taken off as a buzz-phrase! This fall, Dweck wrote a piece in EdWeek revisiting Growth Mindset—addressing some of the misconceptions that have accompanied popularity. For a solid overview of Growth Mindset—what it is and what it isn’t—and a few good examples of how to effectively encourage students, check out the piece here. For another overview from EdSource.org with some powerful quotes, check out this link.

In related news, just this week KQED featured a new resource from Class Dojo to support teaching growth mindset. Check it out here.

Consider the ways in which you praise… Are you perpetuating a fixed mindset? Or encouraging the development of a growth mindset? Our words are powerful. Let’s use them effectively so that our messaging is aligned with our goals.

Blog post written by:
Alli Guilfoil, Director of Academic Intervention

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Managing to Change the World

1/21/2016

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This post will be short and sweet, since I simply want to share a resource that I have found to be helpful over the years. The Management Center is an organization that works to support non-profit organizations to strengthen their management practices through a variety of strategies. I first crossed paths with The Management Center when doing work in New York City and participated in one of the Managing to Change the World workshops, which I did with a team of my new managers at the time. I found their approach and resources to be refreshingly grounded in direct service work and relevant to the opportunities and challenges we face in our daily work. Many years later, now working with Seneca, I continue to find their tools to be simple and effective resources. If you are interested in professional development related to management (people and projects) and trying out a few new strategies to support your work serving on teams and supporting systems within your school partnerships, I encourage you to check out their website.

Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or feedback.

Take Care,
Lilly

Blog post written by:
Lilly Green, Director of School Partnerships

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EVERY STUDENT SUCCEEDS

1/4/2016

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Earlier this month, President Obama signed the newest version of the Elementary and Secondary Schools Education Act, which first became part our national legislative agenda in 1965. The newly titled “Every Student Succeeds Act” (ESSA) rewrites the previous “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) and provides a number of shifts in federal education policy that loosen controls at the federal level in favor of state centered oversight of school performance. Most notably ESSA:

Click here to see a full summary of the changes check out the changes in this document developed by the bipartisan Senate Committee who sponsored the bill.

On the flip side, some critics of the new law worry that some states will fail to live up to the challenge of educating all students and the needs of students who are most vulnerable will be ignored. This excerpt from a Washington Post article sums up the problem:

We actually have some experience in how education systems operate in the absence of accountability enforced from above. Before No Child Left Behind, only 29 states had real accountability systems; 11 states did not disaggregate by race at all; only 22 states reported graduation rates by high school. What will happen with the end of federal nagging? “We’ll continue to see some high-flying states doing really creative, good things for students,” concludes education researcher Chad Aldeman. “But we’ll see a lot more just kind of getting by and doing the bare minimum, particularly when local politics and inertia prevent state leaders from pursuing bold changes on behalf of disadvantaged students.”

The true implications of any policy only come to light during implementation. It is an exciting time for our work with new opportunities to engage in partnerships aimed at building the most efficient systems for supporting all students!

Blog post written by:
Robin Detterman, Executive Director of School Partnerships

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HOW THE UE MODEL CAN SUPPORT CALIFORNIA’S LOCAL CONTROL ACCOUNTABILITY PLAN (LCAP)

1/4/2016

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Recently, California’s education system has experienced a great shift in the way that funding is distributed to districts and schools, thanks to the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) signed into law by Jerry Brown in the summer of 2013. This new approach to funding makes great strides toward a more equitable education system, in that “funding follows need,” and schools serving large populations of traditionally high-needs students, including English Language Learners, students living in poverty, and students in foster care, receive additional funding to address these students’ needs and promote their achievement. The LCFF allows decisions about funding priorities to be made at a more local (district and school-site) level. With this increased responsibility for school-site budgeting comes increased expectations around tracking and reporting outcomes. Under the new law, each district much create a Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) that outlines the school’s priorities and goals and the expected annual outcomes related to each goal. While schools and districts have great flexibility in identifying and addressing their own priorities, all districts must also include goals and measures that address an established set of State Priorities. These priorities are organized under three categories: Conditions for Learning, Pupil Outcomes, and Engagement.

Perhaps the most exciting and progressive set of State Priorities fall under the “Engagement” category, where districts are asked to address and measure three priorities: parental involvement, student engagement, and school climate. As you can imagine, the work of All-in! and our Unconditional Education model is incredibly aligned with these priorities, and some of our schools are even incorporating results from the School Climate Assessment Instrument (SCAI) into their LCAPs! For example, Cox Academy has a goal that “All students attend school in a safe, engaging, and nurturing environment.” One of their annual measurable outcomes for this goal is that each year, students, staff, and family responses on the “Attitude and Culture” dimension of the SCAI will average 3.5 or higher.

We are excited to see the many ways in which our Unconditional Education partnership aligns with and is integrated into each school’s overall vision for success. The LCAP is just one example of this. If you are interested to learn more about your school’s LCAP, they are publicly available documents that can most likely be found on your school’s website. Please feel free to share (in the comment section below) other ways in which your school is promoting a deep and integrated partnership with Seneca!

Blog post written by:
Jenny Ventura, Director of Model Implementation and Assessment

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Welcome

A Little Collaboration Goes a Long Way...

CLINICAL STRAND UPDATE: The Development of A Moral Compass: What Can We Realistically Expect from Children?

ACADEMIC STRAND UPDATE: Food for Thought: Is Our Praise Supporting Learning?

Managing to Change the World

EVERY STUDENT SUCCEEDS

HOW THE UE MODEL CAN SUPPORT CALIFORNIA’S LOCAL CONTROL ACCOUNTABILITY PLAN (LCAP)

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